I am so thrilled for you! I went to Chelsea in 2003 and I really want to do it again. Your pictures are so amazing and they remind me of my time there. My visit was especially important to me, because it was the last trip I was able to take with my mother. This post brings tears of happiness to my eyes--thank you so much for posting.

Joanne

Wouldn't it be great to have a job designing stuff like that?

Er, maybe I should be wishing instead for a design sense to start with.

Gorgeous photos! I'd so love to go someday.
And I must have Lady of Shalott!

Good for you that you were able to attend and for us that we can live vicariously through your images. Love, love, love your pictures. I only wish you had gotten more, but then I appreciate what you did.

Beautiful! Love all the photos (especially the lupines), and I will be on the lookout for "Kew Gardens" next year.

Robert,
Fabulous photos. Thank you so much for sharing them.
That was a lot of work!
So glad that living in England is affording you such great opportunities.
Janelle

OMG, I want those lupines! I'm crazy for them here. Wonderful photos, and thanks so much for posting them!

--Ron

Thank you so much for sharing! I was in London last month but was traveling with 3 teenagers and couldn't even get the time to make it to Kew. I hope to go back someday and go to the Flower Show.

very beautiful

Thanks to everyone for looking and enjoying, I'm glad I could share some of the show with you.

There were a couple of surprises for me at the David Austin exhibit. I had always been under the impression that Princess Alexandra of Kent was a solid, pure pink, but at the show I was shocked to see the variations in her colour, and to see just how big and perfect her blooms were. The scent too was outstanding, so it is going on my list of must haves.

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I was also happy to see Young Lycidas in person, it was much less "shocking" than I imagined it would be, with lovely variations in colour and also, quite large.

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Can you imagine what it was like standing in the middle of all of these Austins?

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The exhibit by Zita Elze, a floral designer, really took my breath away. The colour combinations were so romantic and captured the essence and beauty of a fantasy world of roses and elegance.

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This combination from the grand prize winning garden was just spectacular:
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This was an edible wall for a kitchen garden:
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And this little garden, a collaboration between a pair of French and English friends, captured the charm of a little cottage so wonderfully:
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Thanks for looking, and sharing your comments.

cheers!
robert

Well! I have now turned completely green with envy! How I would love to have been there. It's really almost indescribable isn't it? Thanks for the wonderful photos.

Thank you very much for posting these pictures. It is really quite a show. The lupines are quite pretty. I think it is probably too hot for them here in the summer, but they are showy. I'm sure it would be a real treat to see either the Chelsea or the Hampton flower shows.

Robert, you made my day! I loved looking at your photo's. I so wish I could be there in person but your photo's let me feel like I was. Thank you!

Carol

Robert

Wonderful pictures of Chelsea. Did you perhaps take any photos of the Peter Beales Roses display? I underdstand it was a great display and that they took Gold for the 3rd year in a row.

Thank you again for sharing your pictures.

Liz

Thanks everyone for the nice comments about the photos, I'm thrilled that sharing them helps share my excitement about being there!

Liz, I did see Peter Beales' display, but it was really hard for me to get any photos of it. It was a great mixture of modern and antique roses. I tried to reach over and take in a few breaths of some of my favourites as I passed them by, but just couldn't reach many of them, and the crowd was sort of forced into a merry-go-round type action, so it wasn't good for photos either. The photos ended up just being a bunch of roses rather than the actual structure, but hey, bunches or roses are nice too. :)

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Thanks you sooooo much for posting all these. I've been to two CFS's and honestly feel they have been highlights of my whole travel life. My heart is always there , so thanks for letting my eyes go too.

How was the smell on Wedgwood? That's on my wish list and of course you snapped another on my wish list--Princess Alexandra.

The floral designs are just my style. I've never seen something like that at Chelsea.

Thanks so much for posting. Wonderful pictures, I really enjoyed looking at them. I am green with envy too:-).
Masha

Just beautiful!

Michael

Your are so right. Bunches of roses are just as good sometimes. Thank you for posting the pictures of the "sea of roses" from the Peter Beales Roses display. I have Beales and Austin roses and love them all.
Liz

Added to my dream trip list. Absolutely beautiful photos. That collection of the romantic roses by that designer was one of the most beautiful collections I have ever seen. Just beyond description.

THANK YOU for these photos. Every one of them made me just go *sigh*.

Thank you for all these glorious images. What I enjoyed just as much, if not more so, was the slide show of the roses in your garden. I was very happy to see pictures of Cottage Rose, which does not seem to be a very popular rose any more, but I have two bushes that I love, and likewise Sister Elizabeth, which I think is a very underrated rose but looks beautiful in my garden (and yours).

I think you've made many rose forum members very happy today.

Ingrid

thank you for all those wonderful pictures
I have not see lovelier roses and gardens!
wow, I am senvious that you went to such a wonderful gardening show!

Robert. THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU.
For posting your pictures.
I used to go to Chelsea Flower Show, every year,for many years. It used to be my special day. Every year it was just as fresh and exciting as before.
Once again, you have bought back for me, some wonderful memories with your photographs.
Daisy

These are very nice photos, Robert! We also went to the Chelsea on Friday, or rather I went, because our little boy wasn't allowed to go, so my husband took him for a visit to my cousin in London while I roamed the grounds of the Chelsea. They had a lot of fun and so had I. The show was impressive, but it also looked like a great migration, there must have been tens of thousands of people on the ground and it was sometimes hard to get a foot on the floor, never mind taking a decent picture without either me being in someone's way or someone being in my way (or really both of the above at once).

We went back to the Chelsea today (!) to buy some roses at their sell-off, and I got 4 from the Beales stand (DA doesn't sell). There were also fewer people, but the plant sell off, as much fun as it is, can also be a bit stressful, at least at the Beales stand which seemed beleaguered by everyone and their brothers and sisters. They were really one of the major attractions at the show. Their staff was really great, they always remained friendly and professional, and I got what I wanted. I thought that they were by far one of the most beautiful and impressive ones with its use of color and vertical space.

I liked the Beales a lot better than DA's rather flat display where he showcased his beautiful but, as Robert already said, rather floppy Wedgwood Rose. I love DA's roses, but somehow, the exhibit lacked creativity, although it was also very popular and as a consequence much too crowded.

However, DA only won silver-gilt for their exhibit, while Beales got the gold, fully deserved!

http://www.classicroses.co.uk/articles/major_awards_won/gold_medal_at_rhs_chelsea_flower_show_09_for_peter_beales.html

This is what I got from Beales:

Purple Skyliner, a lovely violet repeat flowering rambler, so cute!

Rural England, a light pink continous flowering multiflora rambler, looked so pretty together with their Purple Skyliner on their gates

Sir Paul Smith, a nice smelling climber, cerise pink with silvery reverse, it looked outstanding on their pillars.

And then the biggest coup of sorts. I managed to get one of the very few new introductions Beales actually sold after telling everyone first that they wouldn't sell (but then they did for a horrendously high price, you really don't want to know). it was their showcase rose, a bicolor deep purple-red climber, Highgrove.

Highgrove is such a beautiful rose, I couldn't resist. The plant they gave me looks terrific, big, healthy, and with a quite a few flowers and buds on it. Getting this one made me really happy:

http://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/h/highgrove.html

Good work, Robert, I'm glad you enjoyed the show too!

I took a lot of pics too, will post later on a separate thread, if that's ok.

Andrea

Here is a link that might be useful: Highgrove

the more I look at these photos, the more magnificent I find them, they are lovely, lovely, lovely

you are so kind to post them!

Absolutely Fabulous!

Thank you so very much for sharing... It was a vacation for my eyes!

Daun

The Olympics (Olympus?) of gardening: I'm green with envy. :)
Thank you for sharing the fabulous photos!

As a Swede I am proud that Swedish designer Ulf Nordfjell's garden for Daily Telegraph won the Best Show Garden award. I didn't go to Chelsea this year but I saw his Tribute to Linnaeus in 2007 and was worried that he'd repeat his favourite features once more as he's wont to do. He's made several gardens in Sweden using the same elements but this year's Chelsea garden was a bit different.

It's obvious that Peter Beales works harder than David Austin to make a spectacular display at Chelsea. Peter Beales' stand in 2007 was like entering a real garden with a long rose walk while David Austin had just massed his roses in a jumble.

Thank you so much for posting these!

I'm sure there are hundreds of other people who are lurking and enjoying your photos too. Thanks for making our day!